Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn has provided an update on whether English heavyweight Anthony Joshua has split from coach Rob McCraken, after the fighter was pictured at a number of American gyms last week.
Joshua was seen on social media alongside Joshua Buatsi in Virgil Hunter’s gym, whilst Ronald and Rashidi Ellis uploaded images of the 31-year-old in Eddy Reynoso’s gym. pound-for-pound star Canelo Alvarez is based.
This therefore sparked huge rumours that Joshua had split with coach McCraken, after the former middleweight boxer came under scrutiny following his fighter’s heavyweight title defeat to Oleksandr Usyk last month.
Despite going into the fight as favourite, Joshua was outboxed by the classy Usyk after the Ukranian put on a masterclass to win on points in front of 65,000 fans at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
This defeat led to many calling for Joshua to have a reshuffle within his team, and after a number of reports Hearn has finally opened up on his client’s stance with McCracken.
JUST IN: Dillian Whyte receives strong Tyson Fury warning as he eyes world title clash
Shields said: “It was them who reached out to me. They reached out to me and they asked me would I be interested in taking a look at AJ and he would like to come down to Texas and see if things could work out between him and I.
“I said, ‘yeah, no problem, I would love to take a look at him, love to see if we can mesh together.’”
The American trainer went on to add that receiving a call from one of the greatest heavyweights in the world did not phase him one bit, having trained some of the biggest names in the sport.
He added: “For me, anytime I talk boxing I don’t care who I’m talking boxing with.
“There is no such thing for me as getting nerves or anything like that, because I do this everyday.
“This is not something that is new to me, and names doesn’t mean anything to me. If I can help somebody, I can help somebody and I just tell what I think, what I feel, how I work and we go through it that way.”